We´re headed south...

Puerto Montt, Chile

February 16, 2007
S 41°28.372
W 072°56.750

We traveled from Santiago to Puerto Montt today after an all day bus ride from Mendoza to Santiago yesterday. Today’s travel was pretty easy, a 1 ½ hour flight followed by a 15 minute bus ride into town compared to seven hours on the bus from Mendoza.

Still, back-to-back travel days take it out of us… imagine hauling two 40 lb. backpacks and a 20 lb. daypack from your hotel, onto the metro, into the airport, from the airport and back onto the bus, out of the bus terminal, and then thru the streets of a city (with no street signs) you have never visited, all in a quest for a hotel that may or may not have a vacancy when you arrive.

Anyway… the best part about today’s flight was the descent. I peered out the window by chance and saw a sea of cotton white clouds. As I looked closer, I saw snow capped peaks poking through the clouds, completely blending into the scenery like chameleons. The scene was absolutely stunning. As we continued our descent, we approached a large, bright blue body of water surrounded by several snow capped peaks; it appeared to be a picture post-card, but it wasn’t a picture… it was real.

After landing in Puerto Montt, we took a very easy bus trip into the city. As we headed towards town along a very narrow two lane road we would occasionally pass farmers driving their horse or oxen bound trailers doing their best to avoid traffic. We made a few turns and then had a straight shot downhill into the town. On the downhill, we had panoramic views of the town of Puerto Montt and the port with the mountains in the background.

After exiting the bus station we took a short hike (800 meters) through the city and found a place to stay; Residencial La Nave, a hotel and restaurant all in one. After a few confusing minutes of discussing Pesos per night ($22 USD) with the woman who seemed to be in charge, we dumped our gear in our room and decided to get some lunch.

We made our way back downstairs through the restaurant (which was now full of locals) and saw several people with large caldrons on their tables filled with seafood. We decided we needed to go no further and to have lunch right there. The caldrons were full of a Puerto Montt’s local specialty, Curanto.

The restaurant, a very simple place (like our hotel room) had square tables and wooden chairs. It appeared the majority of locals were ordering the Curanto—we had to try it! We decided to share one caldron since the bowl was massive. Our waitress brought us all the essentials for eating Curanto—a plate, spoon, knife, fork, bowl to place the discarded shells, bread, and a plate of lemons. After a few moments our very own caldron arrived.

The overflowing bowl had at least a dozen muscles, half a dozen clams, potato, sausage, pork belly, chicken, and a couple different dumpling type things, one with chunks of pork. The bottom of the caldron contained a piping hot tasty broth which was also served on the side in a cup and saucer.

The entire spread was somewhat overwhelming; we weren’t quite sure how to attack this meal. After sneaking quick glances, left and right, to see how the locals eat their Curanto, we determined you cut off a piece of meat or dumpling, put it on your spoon and dunk it into the broth in the cup and saucer. It also seemed important to squeeze the lemons over the entire cauldron, and dip the bread into some of the broth—at least that is how we did it!

Half the fun of traveling is trying new things, I am glad we tried the Curanto!

Our place was only $22.00 a night and of course all the toilet paper we could use right outside our door ;-)

Valentine’s Day in Mendoza...

February 14, 2007
Valentine’s Day

Mendoza, Argentina
S 32°53.353
W 068°50.862

We started Valentine’s Day out the same way we start every day…with a cup of coffee. We found a little café with tables situated under the shade of several sycamore trees outside on the pedestrian mall along Avenue de Sarmiento. Valentine’s Day appeared to be just as big of a commercial holiday in Argentina as it is at home. As we sat in the shade enjoying our café con leche we watched both men and women frantically rushing around to pick up last minute gifts for their loved ones, florists delivering roses, and young ladies walking around with the flowers they already received.

Since Marc and I left our wedding bands at home, we decided in the spirit of V-Day it would be fun to look for little bands to replace our wedding rings while we travel. I actually thought it would be a really good idea after a little “situation” in Valparaiso. As we were sitting outside at a café a Chilean man (mid-fifties and not nearly as good looking as he probably believed) sat down at our table and talked to us, or should I say me. It was almost as if Marc didn’t exist at the table. The guy provided us (me) with excellent information about the sites and some local restaurants, he even provided us (me) with his card and personal cell phone number. He was probably just being friendly, but there was definitely a vibe that I detected and Marc enjoyed immensely. I hoped getting rings would help us (me) avoid situations like this in the future.

After visiting a few stores surrounding the square, we headed to the craft show at the Plaza de Independencia where we found two very simple rings to wear for the remainder of our trip. After we put the rings on each other, we headed to a cute little wine bar to sample more of the local vino and finally caved-in and had our first (and probably not last) helping of ice-cream.

What a great way to spend Valentine’s Day!

Observations about South America

February 13, 2007

• Dinner starts after 10 pm, even on “school” nights.


• It’s normal to see toddlers out running around at midnight.


• The mullet is in…big time! The most popular mullet style is the dread-lock mullet. Business in front… smoke a bowl in the back. Pictures will hopefully be forthcoming and posted to www.mulletsgalore.com


• It is normal to see young boys, three years of age, “training” their mullet; obviously with the consent of their guardian.


• The steak and wine are fabulous in Argentina even if you aren’t a big red meat eater.


• When walking through a park, you are likely to find at least one, usually more, young couples making out on a bench, on the grass or in the shade of a tree.


• Everyone loves their ice cream. There are more places to buy ice cream than to buy coffee.


• After grabbing an ice cream at the heladeria it’s not uncommon to light up a cigarette or two or three… shit, why not just smoke the whole g’damn pack.


• We have not seen a single Starbucks! Whew!


• Stop signs do not mean stop; more like pause and punch it!


• It isn’t unusual to see a new mother walking down the street breast feeding—talk about multi-tasking.


• The stray dogs have a very good demeanor. They aren’t threatening at all even when approaching packs of them.

For the love of BEEF...

February 13, 2007

A special shout-out goes to Torrey Murphy who helped us figure out how to create links to all of our GPS coordinates. Tmurph is da’ man!

Mendoza, Argentina
S 32°53.353
W 068°50.862

First… let’s start by explaining Mendoza reminds us of what Sanger, Selma, Hanford or other small grape growing Central Valley towns resembled about 20 years ago. Quaint, unpretentious and relaxed…

Last night we headed to a local parilla (house of grilled meat) for dinner to have the Argentina specialty—of course, grilled meat. Not being meat eaters we were hesitant; but when in Rome… We arrived at the restaurant about 10pm and there were still a few empty tables. By 10:30, the place was packed, with no seats left and dinner hour was just beginning.

As we walked in the door, the smell from the grill permeated the place which created a Pavlov type reaction—our mouths started watering. The place had large, rustic wood tables and antique décor such as an old typewriter and a phone with microphone and ear piece. The bar was the main attraction when we walked through the door. There were wine bottles scattered throughout the place, some empty, some full, highlighting some of the top wineries in the region. Some bottles sat on top of wine barrels that were placed with no apparent method throughout the restaurant. The grill was in the back of the open-air restaurant where the owner worked feverishly to cook up the meat for all of his customers. A nice and rarely heard English radio station played in the background with music from U2, Bob Marley, Cake (Sacto represent!), Rolling Stones, etc.; of course, we asked our waitress for the station number and she was more than happy to share the station was 95.3 El Metropolitana.

We reviewed the wine list and decided on a bottle of Malbec Andeluna Reserva after we confirmed with our waitress that the selection was muy bueno. Next, we each ordered a salad—Marc ordered the tomato and onion salad (it’s summer time, so the tomatoes are nice and ripe!) and I ordered the La Barra salad. There wasn’t a description of the La Barra salad, but I was willing to take a risk. We also ordered the Bife de Chorizo medium.

Before the salads arrived we received two bowls and some bread. In one bowl was a tomato, basil, oil bruschetta type mixture. The second bowl contained two small eggs that ended up being very tasty quail eggs cooked to a sweet, salty perfection. The Malbec complimented these unexpected starters nicely.

Both salads were served in wood bowls with balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the side. The La Barra salad ended up being a mixture of tomatoes, green onions, bell peppers, and basil. We also ordered a cheese plate appetizer that was a mix of Argentinean Gruyere and something that resembled a dry jack.

The main course, the beef, arrived on a big wooden slab about 8 inches in diameter. The beef itself was a very impressive, huge chunk o’meat. We were immediately happy we decided to share this massive piece of meat that weighed at least 14-16 ounces. A piece of meat that large is difficult to cook perfectly all the way through and was obvious in our cut of meat. Some parts were medium, others were pretty rare, but we tried the various types and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

We mainly came to Mendoza for the wine, weather and grilled beef. I have to say we haven’t been disappointed.

Mendoza... where´s da beef and wine?

Mendoza, Argentina

February 12, 2007
S 32°53.353
W 068°50.862

We headed out on a seven hour bus ride today from Santiago over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina. Our plan… drink excellent wine, relax by the pool, and eat try some of what is supposed to be the best beef in the world. The longer bus ride meant we were in semi-cama class, which is a step above Clasico; seats that recline to almost 135 degrees, more leg room, a leg rest, and a little bag lunch. This bus puts Greyhound to shame!

Still, we definitely weren’t looking forward to the long bus ride, but we knew the scenery on the journey and the end results would make it worthwhile. The trip from Santiago heads directly east into the Andes where the bus climbs through countless switchbacks. The views coming up the switchbacks were absolutely breathtaking. A few of the peaks still had snow remnants from winter, but most of the snow had melted and was now running off in little creeks near the road. The ski lifts swinging in the summer the summer winds were now inoperable and looked out of place against the barren mountains.

Upon arrival at the border between Argentina and Chile all passengers had to de-board the bus for passport control. The line to cross the border and the whole process took almost an hour, but was a dream when compared to the San Ysidro border which can take hours. The inspection process is also a lot more thorough; randomly screening at least 25% of bags on board the bus and doing a visual inspection of all carry on luggage.

After completing the process we got back on the bus and headed down the other side of the Andes. The reflection from the sun as we headed down the Argentinean side made the mountains glow. The burnt orange color reminded us of red rock canyons near Vegas, except there were brilliant blue lakes mixed into the mountains. The views from the bus and experiencing more of the countryside is what convinced us to make this trek over the Andes.

Well, that the Malbec and the grilled beef…

Valpariso and our first familiar face...

Valpariso, Chile

February 11, 2007

We decided to take a day trip to Valpariso instead of hauling our luggage on the bus and through Valpariso for only one night. We didn’t want to miss is the city all together after reading good things about it in our guide book and feedback from other travelers. Plus, we hadn’t been on a bus for a few days and thought we needed some “bus” time.

We booked our tickets in advance. Good thing since the return trip home was completely sold out even though they had a bus leaving every 10 minutes. We opted for the 8am bus leaving Santiago, and the 6pm bus home. Each way was approximately 2 hours, so we thought this was perfect.

First, I should explain the bus system in Chile is very nice; there are even different classes of service mostly depending on the distance being traveled. Since our trip was short, we were on the Clasico, but the seats were comfy and with plenty of leg room. This felt like pure luxury after the infamous trip to Montenita.

We don’t want bore you with the details on Valpariso. We walked around the entire city by 12:30pm after arriving at 10a, and didn’t see anything too exciting (except for some of the graffiti art). The city is a big port town which also comes with the highest HIV rate in all of Chile. We saw a lot more homeless people here than in Santiago (or San Francisco for that matter). We don’t know if the people were homeless due to HIV, or drugs (the homeless did look “cracked” out), or both—most likely a combination.

The main attraction in the city is the 15 ascensors spread throughout the city. The ascensors, which translates into elevators, were used to bring goods and services from the port up to the people living in the hills surrounding the port. They are now simply a tourist attraction; similar to San Francisco’s cable car. They were built on railroad tracks, a big cable wheel, and a long cable with a car at each end. The big cable wheel rotates so one can go up and the other can go down. The cars are very rickety and, as Marc stated, makes the cable car look like an engineering marvel.

The ascensors might be the highlight for Valpariso, but the highlight for us was seeing our first familiar face from home. We met up with Kelsey Smith, Elise Tuttle’s roommate at UNR, who is currently studying abroad in Santiago. She happened to be in Valpariso for the day and was able to meet up with us. We were only able to spend a few hours with Kelsey and her friend Gabriel to share a few beers before heading back to Santiago, but it was nice to see she is doing well in her program.

The best way to compare Valpariso to something familiar is to compare it to Oakland, CA and the fact that it is always lost in the shadow of the larger city looming near by. In summary, Valpariso is to Santiago what Oakland is to San Francisco without the daily gang shootings (at least we think) and the street art in Valpo is awesome (see above).

Something smells fishy. Maybe it’s our laundry or maybe it’s lunch.

Santiago, Chile

February 10, 2007

We woke up early on our first morning in Santiago to continue our quest for a Lavanderia. We have been carrying around two bags of stinky, sandy clothes since we left Montanita on Wednesday. Our plan was to take care of the laundry in Guayaquil, but after searching the city for several hours we gave up, completely defeated.

After deciphering the Santiago Yellow Pages we found three places fairly close and within walking distance. We wanted to get our laundry done and then spend rest of the afternoon exploring Santiago. We struck-out at the first place since it wasn’t open on Saturdays, headed to the second place, and were successful—finally! The only catch, it was an autoservicio lavanderia which means you leave it, they wash and fold it, and you pick come back to pick it up. This actually worked out better for us, giving us time to do other errands while our laundry was being tended to.

With the chores out of the way, we finally headed out on the town for a walking tour. We hit all the highlights in Santiago, including the Mercado Central, a seafood market similar to Pike’s Place in Seattle. We were told to get seafood here, towards the center of the market, most importantly, we were told to be adventurous.

We walked into the market, which looks like it used to be an old seafood processing center. Along the outskirts of the market are the fish purveyors selling calamari, sea urchin, sea snails, various types of fish, mussels, shrimp, clams, and other unidentifiable sea creatures. The purveyors weren’t tossing the salmon as you see at Pike’s Place; however, they were playing their own little jokes on the crowd by playing with some of the various fish for sale.

As we headed towards the center of the market the hosts from the various restaurants started vying for our business, telling us they had the perfect table for us. We did a few laps of the market before deciding on a restaurant, La Joya del Pacifico. The decision was easy because the suave host explained he knew exactly where San Francisco was and loved Gloria Gainer and Jefferson Airplane. After we sat down at the table, the waiter promptly brought us bread, butter and a very fresh looking salsa. There were no chips with the salsa but it tasted wonderful with the soft bread and was a nice alternative to butter.

We both decided to get a bowl of the mixed seafood soup in an attempt to be adventurous. The seafood soup arrived at the table in a scalding cast iron bowl, and I immediately decided we were very adventurous since many of the unidentifiable items sold by the purveyors were now in our soup. We each took a bite—fantastic!

The sauce consisted of standard ingredients such as garlic, onions, tomatoes, white wine, cilantro, pepper oil, and small chunks of ham. The mix of seafood included clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp, white fish, sea snails, abalone, oysters and sea urchin. The final touch on the soup was a bit of sand and a few broken shells…we decided it wouldn’t be seafood soup without these final ingredients.

We both ate as much of the seafood as possible, dipping some of the bread into the soup or into the salsa, and washing it down with a nice cold Cristal beer. As we hit our limit, it appeared we barely made a dent in the dish, but our bellies were full and we were ready to explore some more.

We took one final lap of the market before heading back on the street to see more of Santiago.

Another travel day... Ecuador to Chile

February 9, 2007

We happily left Guayaquil, Ecuador and headed to Santiago, Chile today. Another travel day, it was bound to be adventurous, but not as crazy as the bus ride with the pisser—at least we hoped not.

We knew our arrival in Santiago was scheduled for almost ten o’clock in the evening, so we wanted to arrange a hotel and a ride from the airport in advance. This isn’t as easy as one would think. We started sending emails to different hotels prior to our departure from San Francisco near the end of January. Unfortunately, we never heard back from any of them. The day before our departure from Ecuador, we called our desired hotel (Hotel Monte Carlo) to ensure we had a reservation at arrival. They couldn’t pick us up at the airport, but we secured a reservation. Whew!

We landed in Santiago on schedule around 9:30 PM local time. We quickly deplaned, headed to the immigration check point, grabbed our bags, and, after customs, we braced ourselves for the normal onslaught of taxi cab drivers dying for our business. Our plan was to quickly grab some local currency at the airport ATM and jump in a cab. At least that was the plan… when we walked out of customs we saw a young Chilean gentleman holding a sign that said “Marc Heckman.” Perfect, we thought… the hotel actually came through with transportation for us – nice, we don’t have to haggle with the many cab drivers. Marc gave him the head nod and a big smile, he acknowledged, and we made our way towards him.

We started walking out of the airport without going to the ATM and I decided to ask the young gentlemen if we can pay him in US Dollars. He turned and explained we could take care of it at the hotel. The Velazquez Hotel won’t have any problems handling this transaction.

I turned to Marc, “The Velazquez Hotel?” I said, “That isn’t the place we called yesterday.” Marc and I kind of stop behind the guy and opened our trusty Lonely Planet guide—I scanned the page for the Velazquez Hotel. I couldn’t find the place on my first scan. The guy stopped, looked back inquisitively and waited for us up ahead; we quickly caught up with him. We had no idea where we were going, but figured it would be an experience and, at the least, a ride into the city center and a place to stay.

We got into the car and immediately noticed his gas tank was on empty—as in below the red line. As we drove out of the airport, headed to some unknown location, we saw a sign stating Santiago 16 km.

I thought… Oh great, we’re on the road to “somewhere” and the story behind it will be even better when we run out of gas. Every few minutes the car let out a little beep-beep to remind the driver it desperately needed a fill-up. Our driver didn’t seem phased at first and sped by gas station after gas station. The beep-beeps started getting closer together, and I think I saw sweat building on the driver’s forehead in the rear view mirror. Now he began to panic and started driving a little faster, determined not run out of gas with us in the car—we appreciated this. The beep-beeps were now coming about every 30 seconds when we finally exited the freeway.

The driver quickly drove to the hotel, even running through a questionable pink light and rolled up to Hotel Diego de Velazquez. We don’t know how they had a reservation for us, maybe an email sent a month or so ago, but they had a room with our name and we had a place to stay that night. We’ll take it!